Athens faces Weimar style collapse, Merkel is warned

Angela Merkel will make her first trip to Athens for five years next week amid warnings from the Greek Prime Minister of similar conditions to those that let Hitler seize power.

The Chancellor is keen to offer encouragement to Antonis Samaras, who said yesterday that the money was running out and appealed again for more time to carry out unpopular reforms.

Mrs Merkel’s visit on Tuesday will be met with demonstrations from Greek unions who blame Germany for tough austerity measures that have left a quarter of people out of work.

While she has been portrayed in the Athens media as a latterday Nazi overlord, it was Mr Samaras who raised old ghosts yesterday when he compared Greece’s plight to the hyperinflation in 1930s Germany,…